Off The Grid NeedleArts

Christmas knitting

Posted on November 18, 2015 by caroline

Last Thursday I cast on the second (and only other) Christmas present project. Every year my side of the family draw names for the adult gift giving and this year I will be giving my father a gift. This has helped cut down our expenses quite a bit for the holidays and I’m thrilled that this tradition seems to be sticking. I’ve decided to make him a large care package of little indulgences that he would not usually think to buy for himself. I thought a simple, warm scarf would add nicely to the box.

Purl Bee’s No Rib scarf is a really great pattern. It’s so easy, it makes for perfect late night “tired” knitting because you really don’t need to think and can work on auto pilot. It doesn’t hurt that I’m using one of my most favourite colours either, so this scarf might actually make the deadline!

I’m still listening to Jane Eyre on Craftlit. I only have three chapters left and it’s been a pleasure to listen to. I’ve just started reading Jamie Ford – Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and it’s been a great tonic to all of the Stephen King I’ve been wading through lately. My nerves needed a break! I’m only a short way into it, but it’s really good so far.

Onward Christmas knitting!

Joining Ginny today for the yarnalong – have a peek, there’s always amazing knitting going on!

Posted in Knitting, yarn along | 19 Comments

temari learner ball – part 1

Posted on November 16, 2015 by caroline

See intro here.

See supply list here.

Just a reminder of the end goal – the learner ball uses a base colour of sewing thread and is embroidered with perl cotton and a metallic thread as well if desired. The plain red ball is what you’ll end up with at the end of this post. The finished one has a base colour of a green sewing thread.

So to begin! Take your styrofoam ball and begin to wrap with the yarn. Make random wraps and keep the tension even – not too tight, but not loose enough that the wraps fall off. You are creating a cushion for the embroidery to sit upon.

I used up the blue yarn so just continued with some green until all of the white of the ball was covered. Secure the end of the yarn under the wrap.

Now, begin to cover the yarn wrap with the thread wrap – obviously this takes A LOT longer. Put on a good podcast or audiobook, but do keep watching your hands to avoid lumps of thread in the same wrap. Move your thumb as you wrap to provide the maximum variety of wraps all over the ball.

When you think you’re done, keep wrapping. This one is close but not quite there…. Also – leave me a comment with how many times you dropped the blooming thing whilst wrapping it…….

Last photo – finally finished. No visible yarn at all and a nice random wrap with the end securely tacked down.

I’ll post the next step next Monday – you’ll need your metallic thread, some pins with coloured heads (which I forgot to put on original list) a small measuring tape, and a thin (1/4′) strip of paper that will wrap around the circumference of your ball.

Happy Monday to all!

Posted in Temari | 10 Comments

comfort

Posted on November 15, 2015 by caroline

I think we could all use a little comfort this weekend. I like to bake when I’m feeling unsettled and it distracts me from checking the news updates every ten minutes. Then, I just need a little will power to not eat all of the baking…….

I’ve been making these banana muffins for years now. When I need a dessert in a hurry, I simply add 1 cup of chocolate chips to the recipe and bake it in a bundt pan. A little scoop of ice cream on the side and it goes down with raves from the crowd. These were made out of some very (very) black bananas that really needed using. I hate food waste, so this is a very common recipe around here. I doubled the batch today and added chocolate chips to the pan on the left as per Nicholas’ request. Do use butter, they’re worth it 🙂 I’ve been browsing other muffin recipes on Pinterest lately – so many to try!

Caroline’s Banana Muffins

1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 large egg, beaten
4 extra ripe bananas, mashed
1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg, banana and vanilla and mix well. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the mix.

Bake at 350 degrees for approx 35 min – start checking after 25 min and when they are golden brown and toothpick comes out cleanly from the centre, they’re done. Check a few though, because sometimes you’ll hit a moist part of banana and the toothpick will lie 🙂 Mine usually take 35 minutes.

Makes 12 large muffins

In other news, I finished the cream Irish Hiking scarf – Christmas present #1 complete. I seamed the edges together and turned it into an infinity scarf.

Posted in Finally finished, Knitting, Life | 8 Comments

temari supplies

Posted on November 13, 2015 by caroline

You’ll need:

1 styrofoam ball – the one with the rough surface is much easier to work with.
yarn – enough to completely wrap the ball and not thicker than sport weight. It matters not what colour, this will be completely covered up.
sewing thread – approx. 300m. I like to use serger thread because it’s inexpensive and I can wrap several balls with one cone.
two contrasting colours of #5 perl cotton
one skein (if desired) of a metallic thread that matches the thickness of the #5 perl. This is not crucial – you can use perl cotton, but the metallic is very pretty. DMC makes a metallic that you can use (the threads will not be separated)
long, sharp needle – there are specific temari needles but you can use a #18 or #20 tapestry needle just as well.
scissors
a good attitude.

I’ll post the first part of the instructions on Monday morning. It will probably take three tutorials to finish the learner ball and I aim to post them on Mondays as it’s a light work day for me.

I wish you all a bit of relaxation and fun this weekend, the weather is abysmal here which suits this knitter/stitcher just fine 🙂 Time for a hot coffee, the fireplace on and some fiber-y goodness.

Posted in Temari | 4 Comments

temari along?

Posted on November 12, 2015 by caroline

Would anyone be interested in learning how to make a beginner ball? I’d be happy to post a series of tutorials on here if there were some who would like to learn. Please leave me a comment if you would and I’ll try to have something up on Monday. I could post a small list of supplies tomorrow if you’d like. Unlike some other crafts hat I’ve done, temari can be an inexpensive way to create something beautiful.

I fully realize that my photography skills are the pits – however I won’t apologize for them. I’m not a photographer and if I let my perfectionist tendencies out to play, I never ever would have started this blog. It took me a few years to work up the courage and when I decided to just do it, i had to make peace with the fact that the pictures would just be a way to add flavour, not take a starring role.

The ball that is on the right side is the beginner pattern I’ll start with – you can learn the basic temari stitch and then we’ll go from there. If you decide to make one – could you please link back to me in any blog post that you write about it?

So, who’s in??

Posted in Life | 7 Comments

Remembrance Day

Posted on November 11, 2015 by caroline

I spent most of yesterday thinking it was Remembrance Day. I wore my poppy and at 11:11 I had a quiet moment and thought of how lucky I was to live in Canada and have the freedom that I do. It wasn’t until Sarah came home and after school and told me that her assembly was tomorrow (now today, of course) that I twigged that I had made a mistake. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a little extra gratitude though, so I will repeat my actions today.

I will be teaching a class on Temari embroidery at the end of this month at our LNS. I have the initial class model ball complete but I would like to also make a holiday one in order to show different colour ideas. I love blue and silver so I suspect I will go in that direction, though you can never go wrong with red, green and gold. These are Japanese thread balls and the history is fascinating if you’re inclined to look it up www.temarikai.com/ is a fantastic resource.

This is done with a herringbone stitch and lazy daisy stitches are filling in some of the spaces created by that stitch. I have a temari board on Pinterest if you would like to see some examples of how intricate they can get. They are beautiful, if you’re the sort who likes to do multiple types of crafting – be warned, you will be tempted to learn something new. In all honesty, at our house Sarah is the resident temari expert. This is a craft that she excels at and I normally teach the class with her. She is an invaluable partner and unfortunately this class is conflicting with her first concert weekend and she will have a dress rehearsal the same day making her unable to teach with me. I always enjoy these classes, the students are keen and it can be a lot of fun.

Posted in Life, Temari | 6 Comments

monday again

Posted on November 9, 2015 by caroline

Yesterday was an extremely long day. We left around 8am and had a little tour of Times Square by car on our way to the Lincoln Tunnel.

There was a bridge scheduled for demolition this weekend in the Niagara area that we didn’t know about before so the detour that we needed to take added about 1.5hrs to the trip. The kids were happy to see us, almost as relieved as their grandfather that we were home 🙂 I did make it to School House Products yarn shop on Saturday and I loved every minute. It was in an old building on the 6th floor. The elevator still required an operator! The couple who own and run the shop are fantastic and the place has old school charm. It is not chic nor do they have a huge inventory, but what they do have is lovely and the gentleman hilariously kept trying to offer me better and better deals. They know their product well and the lady had some beautiful hanks of wool that she had hand dyed in some gorgeous variegated colours. I did leave with a large hank of a silk/rayon blend (fingering weight) that I think I would like to try and turn into a large shawl with the Umaro pattern. I also picked up a couple of special skeins for Lisa there as well. It’s always nice spending someone else’s money!

I’m a little behind in posting an update on a winter knit along joining in with thistlebear, so here is Nicholas’ blanket update. I’ve finished the brown stripe that I was working on in October and have made a good start into the next level of turquoise. As a reminder, it’s a simple feather and fan pattern being worked up in the cheapest, most indestructible acrylic yarn I could find. He picked the colours and has been waiting patiently for it to adorn his bed. Oscar loves being draped in yarny goodness so I took the photo and let him have a cuddle – if there was a soundtrack you could hear a very loud, happy purr.

Posted in Life | 9 Comments

early morning

Posted on November 7, 2015 by caroline

This city can be overwhelming! For an introvert, a few days is plenty of time and I will be ready to go back to the relative quiet of my home city and dream of the silence of the island to come next summer. It’s a quiet morning here in the room and we’ll wait a bit before venturing out. The coffee maker in here makes a decent cup and my knitting is calling. It’s been a very sweet getaway so far, a great reminder of why I married John all those years ago, he’s still the very best.

Have a wonderful Saturday.

Posted in Life | 2 Comments

start spreading the news….

Posted on November 6, 2015 by caroline

I seem to have Frank Sinatra singing in my ear all day long while I’m here. What a crazy, busy city! We walked down through Central park this morning to make our way to the American Museum of Natural History. What a fantastic place! There were many school groups in attendance today and excited noisy children were everywhere. We knew Nicholas would have loved to see the enormous dinosaur display. My favourite part of the visit was watching the Jean- Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean film in 3D – it was fantastic and beautifully scored with music that added so much to the experience, I would certainly watch it again.

It was warm and humid today and with the park still showing off some late fall colour, we had a lovely walk.

We planned our route and stopped in at Knitty City on our way back, after the museum. I bought a skein of lovely stuff to make a hat for Christmas for Sarah – I will make Andrea Hilton’s new Samoa pattern. I also picked up a luxury skein at the request of my clarinet knitter friend, Lisa, who wanted to try a silk/yak blend. Isn’t it beautifully vibrant?

I won’t be going to Purl Soho while I’m here. I know it’s a hotspot for knitters, I just know myself and my budget 🙂 I would like to try to make it over to School Products Yarn tomorrow as it’s the oldest yarn shop in NYC and is supposed to have decent pricing on cones of yarn.

Posted in Knitting, Life | 6 Comments

change of location.

Posted on November 5, 2015 by caroline

Well, 5am came early this morning and saw us packed and out the door. 2 hours later, we were at the border in Fort Erie exchanging our CDN rainbow money for the plain green US $ and ooogling the vats of liquor for sale cheap, cheap, cheap. I had to show you this:

That would be 4.5L of Jameson Irish whiskey for $90CDN. That, my friends is a party in the making. (for my imperial friends that’s approx 1.5 US gallons…)

It was fate that as we crossed the border the lovely driver ahead gave me the perfect licence plate to start the trip off on the right foot –

Fast forward a few more hours of driving….. and now we’re here!

NYC!! This is a little belated anniversary get away for John and I without the children. They are babysitting their grandfather back at home.

Don’t worry, I brought lots of projects to keep me busy, and 2 different yarn shops to visit are on the agenda for tomorrow.

Posted in Life | 6 Comments